A burgeoning scandal threatens to derail the massive $1 billion
redevelopment of the aging Miami Beach Convention Center.
Previous accusations: Several months ago, Miami Beach procurement
director Gus Lopez was forced to resign over allegations that he was leaking
confidential information on the selection process to a prospective developer for
the project. Investigators turned up emails from Lopez to developer Walter
Garcia revealing information on the project before it was released to other
candidates as well as details not available to others. There are even some
indications that the two were thinking of assembling their own team to propose on
the project.
Expanding controversy: The scandal has recently grown to
potentially enmesh top developer CMC Group, part of the team vying for the
convention center project. The team, Portman-CMC, was the highest scoring
developer rated by the evaluation committee.
The concern centers on a payment of $25,000 from CMC to developer Garcia's company,
Peninsula Development. CMC maintains that the payment was for talks and
negotiation when Peninsula was being considered for a consulting role on the
convention center proposal.
Start over or forge ahead? Even though CMC ultimately did not work
with Peninsula on the project, some feel that the selection process has been
tarnished to the point that it should be restarted completely.
Commissioner Jonah Wolfson expressed the opinion that the allegations of
misconduct are "reason to start the whole thing over." Others, however, are
concerned about the implications of current proposals being public and how that
would affect response to another RFQ: "Everyone knows everything," said Stuart
Blumberg, Chairman of the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board, "It
would make it difficult."
Lessons learned: The Miami Beach story illustrates one of the ways that a perception
of bias or favoritism can be destructive to the selection process. Advance or inside information
can be a significant advantage to a proposer and can be easily transferred to other proposers, making
it hard to track while conveying a potential advantage on any proposer who
receives such information. As a rule, information about a project should not be released
outside the public agency unless and until it is available to all proposers.
Additional information:
Mike Purdy's Public Contracting Blog
© 2012 by Michael E. Purdy Associates, LLC
http://PublicContracting.blogspot.com
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